Seizure Mimics

Few things will frighten parents more than seeing their child appear to shake all over. Fortunately, many times seizure activity is due to benign causes like simple febrile seizures. Unfortunately, our job is quite difficult and we need to deal with other more troublesome entities like complex febrile seizures or neonatal seizures. Of course we also need to consider entities that may provoke seizures, like hypoglycemia, AVMs, or pyridoxine deficiency. While juggling all of the potential causes of seizures, we also need to pause and ask ourselves a simple question: was this even a seizure? Perhaps we are dealing with a Seizure Mimic!

Seizure Numbers

Seizures are the most common pediatric neurologic emergency.

Seizures affect 4-10% of children during their lifetime. (Hauser, 1994)

~10% of new onset seizures present to the ED in status epileptics. (Singh, 2010)

Some Seizure Mimics

Since seizures are the most common neurologic emergency encountered in pediatric patients, it is reasonable to have it on the Ddx list of any child presenting with odd movements and/or behavior; however, there are also other significant conditions that should be considered in that situation! Here are some that could alter your initial management!

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